Challenge 9: Is the message you send to your stakeholders the right one to best communicate innovation?

Diagnosis

In our fast-moving digitalized society, it is common perception that innovation success depends highly on communication, because it requires collaborating with others. Innovation emerges after a group of people is working together to achieve the agreed objective. People participating to the innovation process form cross-functional teams that communicate with each other so that they take the right decisions and support change.

Communicating innovation, it is not only an internal process. Innovation must be presented and explained in the best possible way to different types of stakeholders who form an entire ecosystem. To really trigger change, you must know how to communicate effectively and consistently with multiple audiences, to understand their needs and to know how to best connect with them.

The less you invest time, resources, and professional knowledge that can help you create the right message(s) within your communication strategy towards your stakeholders, the less successful your innovation will be. Innovation is not only about creating products or services, but also about added value, out-of-the-box solutions, and stakeholders’ problems solved in creative ways, and these are the reasons why communication should be clear and compelling.

To try to understand the importance of creating the right and effective message for your stakeholders, please analyse the aspects presented in the table below.

Positive aspects	Negative aspects
The message you prepare for communicating innovation is clear, understandable, and easy to remember by your stakeholders, no matter their background.	The message is not very clear, only part of the stakeholders can understand it. It is either very technical or very simple, and kind of difficult to remember.
The message you prepare for communicating innovation is concise, presents without unnecessary wording the subject for which it was created. It is direct and easy to understand.	The message is difficult to understand. It contains a lot of additional information not relevant to the main subject of communication.
The message you prepare for communicating innovation is credible. You have included proof points and enough supporting details to make it believable for the key points you want to pass on.	The message is not supported by proofs that could help it become more credible in passing on the intended key points.
The message you prepare for communicating innovation is compelling. It is so well created that can catch any of your stakeholders’ attention. They become even motivated to take actions towards your innovation.	The message does not catch your audience’s attention, does not motivate them, and does not create any urge to take any action towards your innovation.
The message you prepare for communicating innovation is consistent. It is created so that can be used in different types of communication channels without the fear that it will become boring and inappropriate.	The message is not flexible enough to be repeated and used in different communication channels. It becomes easily boring.
The message you prepare for communicating innovation clearly incudes your business objectives, and the main projects your company wants to accomplish.	The message does not state your company goals and future plans related to the innovation you want to communicate.
The message you prepare considers the key audiences you have previously analysed from the point of view of their mindset, needs, desires, goals, and it is easily adapted to each category.	The message demonstrate that you do not know your stakeholders. You must define your audience before creating the message structure.
The message you prepare includes three core messages you want your stakeholders to remember after meeting you. These three main ideas are also easy to be passed on to further audiences meeting your objective to spread your innovation.	The message is too complicated for any stakeholder to remember some key points that could be spread further about the innovation you want to communicate.
The message was developed based on the answers to a set of important questions related to what is happening in your company from innovation point of view, why is important for you to innovate, who is impacted by implementing innovation, who decided to take action towards innovation, when and how the change will happen.	You have not taken into consideration so many questions to be answered before you structure your message. You do not consider creating communication material a complex process.
You have included in the message you prepared for communicating innovation also stories and anecdotes that make it memorable and bring it to life.	The message is dull. It does not stick with you after seeing it, reading it or hearing it in any circumstances.

1. Fill in the table with your initial assessment regarding each aspect and the way it is reflected in your company.

2. Organize a meeting with all employees, either responsible for communication or from different departments, and analyse together the messages you want to use to promote innovation among company’s stakeholders. Discuss together the conclusions of what you have identified as weak and strong points regarding message consistence, clarity, conciseness, credibility, and compelling.

Actions for implementation

If you observe that negative aspects are common in your company, while positive aspects are barely present, you must take seriously implementing and improving a professional approach to the communication messages your company wants to pass on in the business environment.

Your objective should be to develop concise and compelling messages targeted to your audience as it is a critical requirement for the success of any communication campaign, especially one focused on promoting innovation. People are exposed to thousands of messages every day and each message has only three to five seconds to become appealing and make a strong impression on the audience. This brings a lot of pressure on the content management and the attention given to create impact messages.

Actions to be implemented to reach your goal can include:

1. Create general information material for the innovation you want to promote. This guidance information should include what and how to communicate about your innovation. It also includes research done on innovation, know-how, goals of innovation for your company and outside environment, vision, and values of your company in the context of changes towards innovative development, targeted stakeholders and detailed information about each category, benefits of innovation and faced challenges, competitor’s activity, and possible similarities with your program. This data should be shared with all involved in creating messages for your communication campaign.

2. Develop a value proposition for each targeted group in your communication campaign. A value proposition refers to the benefit that the targeted group will gain by welcoming the innovation you want to implement. Depending on the characteristics of each group forming your audience, the message should be adapted to their own values.

3. Create extended information document for each value proposition you have thought of depending on each targeted group in your audience. This document includes more information related to each value proposition that help the communication responsible identify the key messages to use to better present your innovation among your stakeholders.

When creating this document, you should consider the following points:

• Use simple messages focusing on the key barriers to change when innovation involved.
• Messages should be structured so that they create an emotional connection with the targeted audience.
• Messages should focus on the benefits of innovation rather than product, services, or processes changes. Stakeholders appreciate to know what is in for them when it comes to new features.
• Messages should include supporting facts that offer enhanced credibility.